Inevitable
by Gavr3el
Summary: For Saku. Started in 2012. Jin/Yusuke. Grappling with the aftermath of Keiko's infidelity and separation from his fourteen year old son, Yusuke is suddenly faced with having to deal with a lot more of the chaotic, free spirited Master of the Winds than he ever had to before…and there's no telling what will come of that.


Dis/claimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho—I never have and never will obtain monetary profit from writing fanfiction; however, this fic's plot and any poetry, art, or OCs for it are mine to claim.  
Tentative, temporary summary: Grappling with the aftermath of Keiko's infidelity and separation from his fourteen year old son, Yusuke is suddenly faced with having to deal with a lot more of the chaotic, free spirited Master of the Winds than he ever had to before…and there's no telling what will come of that.  
Warning(s): Eventual shounen ai. An original character named Yosuke (Yusuke and Keiko's son). Infidelity. Past Keiko/Yusuke. Eventual Jin/Yusuke. A bit of angst. And I'll add more warnings as they come up. Ah, yeah…I probably butchered Jin's Irish accent…and I might come back later to fix that…  
Rating: T  
Author's notes: I started this in fall 2012 for Saku in light of what she won from me for the help-japan thing at LiveJournal (a 1k+ fanfic and accompanying coverart piece). I've been sitting on what I've already written for this, too long, almost 5 years I guess? I figured since I was posting so many new things lately…I might as well post the beginning part of this fic too. I don't know how long this will be (definitely more than 1k+ words), but I don't anticipate it being a super long, multi-chaptered piece either.  
Dedication: Saku, sorry it's taken me so damn long to put this up. You haven't even had the chance to read what little I've written… hope you'll like that end product …and hope the art when I finally do draw it…isn't too crappy. Anyway, I always keep my promises, no matter how long it takes me follow through on them…

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 **Inevitable  
** Part I **  
**By Yo (dragonheart-butterflysoul at tumblr; aino-himitsu at livejournal)  
Started in the fall of 2012; Word count (for this part) is about 1,100 _ **  
**_

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 _We feel free when we escape—even if it be but from the frying pan into the fire._ —Eric Hoffer

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The cool, spicy scent of autumn was in the air, light against his skin. Autumn never felt heavy to Yusuke…when perhaps it should. Because autumn was the season before everything "died" and began to prepare to slumber through the long winter. The foreshadowing and symbolism was not lost on the former, supposedly "dimwitted" Spirit Detective of Earth. Sometimes people forgot he was wise in his own way, and he never corrected them. Why should he? It was a waste of precious energy trying to change other people's misassumptions about him. Sometimes he really didn't give a rat's ass, but there were times he did—he just would never admit that he cared. And he almost always cared what Keiko and Yosuke thought about him...

His breath caught in his throat and then his throat suddenly tightened at the thought of them. He had to close his dark eyes—to hide the storm beginning to brew there. Not that there was anyone around this part of Genkai's land to see it. He was alone at the dojo—located far from the main temple area—and his classes had finished barely an hour ago. His students were gone for the day and Kurama and Kuwabara hadn't been able to help him teach today. The demons who sought sanctuary at Genkai's temple also knew better than to step anywhere near the dojo—He made it _very_ clear just what he'd do to them if they got any ideas about messing with his human students.

Yusuke's hands clenched into tight fists against his sides, and he tried to focus on the feel of the smooth, black cotton of his training pants…the cloth of his black tank top rubbing against his chest. He then let his awareness shift toward the feel of the dark, cooling wood of the porch beneath his bare feet. He tried hard to center himself in this moment…not in the recent past where those two were so heavy in his mind…in his heart. Yusuke had done this often to distract himself from the pain in the last month…and he always seemed to fail at it.

Almost against his will, his eyes opened—He watched as the sun set like a dying firestorm behind the mountains in the west. His eyes then found the falling maple leaves that were like orange and red and yellow flames fluttering and snuffing out against the mottled brown-green earth. It was always so surreal to Yusuke that the pine trees and evergreens never changed color. The forest reminded him of a bizarre patchwork quilt made of fading, fleeting sunsets and eternal green…

He suddenly realized he had to face the searing pain he'd been avoiding…to cauterize the wounds. He forced himself to face the fact that Keiko was gone…no longer such a vital part of his life. He had to face that fifteen years of marriage and their fourteen year old son were…just _gone_ …

His throat tightened even more, and he was suddenly holding his breath. He couldn't breathe beyond the shattered remains his heart…

All he could remember was walking in on her above another man, the white flesh of her back stark against the violet—Keiko's favorite color—sheets bunched around them. She rode the man, whose face and form were hidden from Yusuke's view. Yusuke _still_ wasn't sure if he was grateful or not to be spared the knowledge of the man's full identity. Though, he probably would've killed the man had he known. All Yusuke knew was that the man was a fellow doctor working at the same clinic as Keiko. The image of them intimately intertwined in the bed Yusuke had shared with her for so many years was forever burned inside his mind now.

He would always remember a shadow, a faceless man able to make Keiko scream and writhe in passion when he could not—and had not been able to for years. He would remember forever turning his back on them and walking out of the apartment in which he had helped Keiko raise Yosuke, not even slamming the front door. They never heard his soft footsteps or the way his breath hitched from the silent sobs wracking his chest—Keiko never saw the burning tears that slid down his cheeks. He remembered how those tears had been the most warmth he'd felt for Keiko in years and he realized that he'd lost his wife a long time ago…that their marriage had long been cold and worn out. He wept not because of her betrayal, but because he couldn't blame her...because they stopped being in love years ago. And he wept because he walked out on his son without a word the way his own father had done to him and Atsuko…he wept because he knew Yosuke would never forgive him and simply scapegoat Yusuke for everything—Keiko was like a goddess in that kid's eyes; she was a being who could do no wrong and Yusuke felt that he shouldn't ruin that image for his son; Yusuke already knew how to take everyone else's blame and then some, and Keiko didn't; She'd never know how to bear such an awful weight with indifference. Yusuke cried because his son had never loved him anyway…and perhaps wouldn't even miss him when he was gone.

No, Yusuke would never be able to forget that night a month ago or the hazy days after. He had her served divorce papers never even looking at her face, and she didn't raise hell about it either. He asked for nothing from Keiko, not even joint custody of or visitation rights to his son. He knew she signed the papers as quietly as he had walked out the night he caught her with another man. There had been no words between them since and none of their friends ever talked about what happened in his presence. No one asked him what was wrong. Not even Kuwabara, who seemed to be the loudest person Yusuke knew. He wondered if they cared. If _anyone_ cared.

His heart broke for so many reasons, but for none that it should. His life had become so fucked up and he had not once shown it in the last month. Yusuke never imagined there would come a day he hoped another being could see him hurting…

"Yus'ke, there ye be! What's th' matter, lad? Ya look like ye be seein' a ghost or somethin'," Jin's voice cut through the drowning silence.

"Damn it, Jin! Warn a man next time you're gonna pop up out of nowhere in front of him upside fucking down!" Yusuke yelled and clutched at his chest with both of his hands, glaring up at the Wind Master. "And what the hell are you doing out here at the dojo? You _know_ I don't let any of the demons near this area, old friends or not! And Kurama doesn't count because he helps me teach."

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 _To be continued…_


End file.
